Popsicle Soup
by Krys Yuy
Summary: It’s summertime and Clark comes up with a mischievous way to cool down. Or heat up, as the case may be. Clois. Shameless fluff. Set in or post-Season 9. Free Fall universe compatible.


**Popsicle Soup**  
Author: Krys Yuy  
Prompt: #36/popsicles  
Summary: It's summertime and Clark comes up with a mischievous way to cool down. Or heat up, as the case may be. Shameless fluff. Set in or post-Season 9. _Free Fall_ universe compatible.  
Pairing/Characters: Clark/Lois  
Warning: Slightly suggestive, maybe…?  
Rating: R/M (mild)  
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters used. This fic is purely for entertainment purposes only.  
Author's Notes: Written for the Summer Food Challenge at 12 Days of Clois on LiveJournal. Set in the _Free Fall_ universe, but can be read as a Smallville standalone. You need no knowledge of the FF universe to enjoy this story. However, FF readers may read this to get something more out of the _Free Fall_ universe and the relationship between Clark and Lois. This is just a simple piece of fluff for readers to enjoy. I don't know what it is about 12 Days of Clois, but my muse really loves their prompts. Please read, review and enjoy~!

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"It's so _hot_…" Lois moaned, waving a folded newspaper in front of her face. The slight wind she generated did nothing but ruffle her hair. She waved the paper faster but the heat overwhelmed even her best efforts. She laid back full length on the wicker loveseat, her knees hooking over the armrest and head resting on the padded cushion. She let her left hand drop to the ground limply as her right lay atop her stomach.

Lois looked around the Kent porch with her limited vision, everything upside down. "Smallville!" she shouted, searching for her dark haired partner. "Where are you?"

No answer. She sighed, relaxing her head on the seat instead of keeping it tilted back. Though in the shade of the wrap-around porch, the heat made it seem like the sun was beating directly upon her. She groaned again and closed her eyes. Why oh why was the AC broken? The inside of the house was even worse than the outside, and that was saying something. At least there was an occasional gust of wind on the porch.

Lois swung her legs back and forth as her left hand pounded the hardwood floor, newspaper still in its clutches. "Smallville!" she yelled. "Hurry up!"

A door opened and then footsteps approached closer and closer until they stopped next to her head. "A little patience, Lois," Clark said, holding a large white ceramic plate in his right hand. "Or did you miss me that much?"

She opened her left eye to see him hovering above and looking down at her with an amused smile. He wore a white muscle shirt and dark jeans, looking particularly scrumptious. Not that she would let him know. She took another look at his jeans and wondered how he could wear that in this heat. She shifted around in her light blue tank top and red running shorts.

"You wish," she muttered, snorting. She dropped her makeshift fan. "I just wanted the relief only you could provide."

Clark's gaze trailed down her long legs. "Umm…"

Lois tumbled through her verbal blunder, unaware of his stare, and twisted around on the cushioned bench to snatch one of the iced treats he had on the plate. The dish was large and round with a deep center, almost a bowl but not quite. It carried six Popsicles of varying colors – well, five now after Lois plucked one away. She had taken the purple one, which left two reds, an orange, a blue and a green.

Lois broke the two-part Popsicle in half and now held one stick in each hand. She licked the one in her left and made a slight motion towards Clark with the other. He reached for it, thinking she was offering, but then she moved it out of his reach and licked that Popsicle too. Clark rolled his eyes and righted the short square table next to the loveseat that Lois had accidentally knocked down with her feet, making sure to place it a safe distance away from her. Then he placed the plate of Popsicles on its wooden surface. He sat on the hardwood floor of the porch, back against the side of the loveseat where Lois's feet pointed up.

Clark reached behind with his right hand for the first Popsicle he touched and was pleasantly surprised to find it was the cherry red one. "You could have just gotten the Popsicles yourself," Clark reminded her, cracking the frozen treat in half. He started licking one stick and held the other one out to her. "Trade you Wild Cherry for your Groovy Grape?"

Lois almost choked on her Popsicle because of her sudden bout of laughter. "Groovy Grape? Is that seriously the name or did you make it up?" she asked, tossing her ponytail.

"Unless you can find the box, I'll never tell," he replied, a small grin playing on his lips. He waved the iced red treat in her face. "So?"

Lois eyed him over her shoulder before turning back on her backside, legs stretching out to once again hang over the armrest. She gave her other Popsicle one more lick before offering it to him. Sugar coated her smile. "Okay," she said.

Clark placed his cherry Popsicle in his mouth so he could accept the grape one. He then replaced her empty hand with the other red treat. "Pleasure doing business with you," he said, winking.

Lois looked up at the ceiling to avoid his baby blues. Flirty Clark, intentional or not, did warm things to her insides. She switched her grape Popsicle for her new cherry one, enjoying the change in flavor. She and Clark simply enjoyed the quiet of the moment. Clark looked out at the sky from his position on the floor as she closed her eyes again and listened to the faint sounds of the farm. The ice treat melted in her mouth and gave a brief reprieve from the heat.

Clark extended his left leg out in front of him, while he brought his right knee up. He rested his wrist on top of it and thought about other ways they could cool down. One Popsicle was in the side of his mouth, the other in his hand. "Want to go to Crater Lake?" he asked, tilting his head back. It rested against the cushion behind him, Lois's thigh barely brushing the tips of his hair.

She was already done with the red Popsicle and switched back to the purple one. "So… lazy…" she murmured. She reached out and tapped his forehead with the red stained Popsicle stick. "I can't move. I think I have heat stroke."

Clark swatted her hand away and felt traces of stickiness on his skin. "You do not have a heat stroke," he replied, finishing his grape treat. He brought his somewhat sticky fingers in front of his face, and a mischievous idea darted through his head, one that fit nicely with what he already planned.

Lois remained ignorant to his thoughts. "How do you know, Dr. Plaid?" she asked.

He ignored the nickname. "First off, there are a bunch of symptoms you don't have. Like a high body temperature –"

She waved both hands in the air, gesturing to her entire body. "_Hel_-lo?"

Clark went on. "– _plus_ a rapid pulse or difficulty breathing –"

Lois made exaggerated breathing noises, almost like she was choking. Clark simply used the purple stained Popsicle stick to tap against his knee as he continued naming symptoms.

"– strange behavior, hallucinations –"

"Is that Oliver and Dinah making out?" Lois asked, pointing in the distance. Her skin crawled thinking about it though, and she wondered why that image had popped into her head of all things. Probably had something to do with her unspoken adversary's sudden move back to Metropolis.

"– confusion, agitation –"

Lois attempted to throw her finished Popsicle stick at him, but pouted when he somehow ducked at the right moment. She rubbed her temples. "I'm agitated with _you_ right now," she muttered.

Clark listed off the other symptoms quickly. "– disorientation, seizure, coma –"

"Okay!" She waved her hand again, cutting him off. She gulped down the last of her grape Popsicle. "I get it. Where did you learn all that, anyway?"

He shrugged, licking at his iced cherry treat. "I told you I have first aid credentials," he answered.

Her bare feet tapped against the side of the house she could reach. "You got gold stars every class, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yes I did, Lois," he replied solemnly. He was almost at the end of his cherry Popsicle and hoped Lois wouldn't steal the only other red one. "Top students not only got gold stars, but free first aid kits."

Lois lifted herself up on her elbows and pointed her other Popsicle stick. "Smallville, you–" Her eyes glanced at the plate on the side table and she did a double take. She sat up awkwardly, supporting herself with her arms out behind her, and exclaimed, "The Popsicles! The Popsicles!"

"What?" Clark looked over his shoulder and saw that the four Popsicles remaining had already begun to melt into one syrupy mess. Good. This was coming together nicely. He hid his smile from Lois and reached for the plate. He crossed his legs and laid the plate on top of them.

The red, orange, blue and green Popsicles were arranged next to each other in that order exactly. The color of the liquids grew lighter as the ice melted on the surface of the plate. The once solid sticks of ice were now dissolving, though they still retained a majority of their shape so far. Clark picked up the cherry treat and split it in half. He pushed the two sticks perpendicular to each other so that the ice crumbled easily onto the plate.

Lois had repositioned herself so that she was sitting with her legs crossed, mirroring Clark's posture as she sat behind him on the loveseat. She peered over his shoulder and frowned. "Crap, why did you bring out so many?" she asked. "Of course they're going to melt in this heat!"

Clark began the methodical process of separating the rest of the colored ice from their wooden sticks. "Ever hear of Popsicle soup?" he asked.

Lois drummed her finished Popsicle stick on the top of Clark's head. "Popsicle soup?" she echoed, curiosity overpowering irritation.

The Popsicles were now a small pile of colored ice. Clark placed the stained wooden sticks next to him on the floor, except for one. "Pete and I used to do this all the time when we were kids," he explained.

"Huh. Must be a small town thing," Lois commented, pouting when Clark batted her hand away from his head. She placed the stick in her mouth instead. "We played soldier on base."

Clark picked a fragment of the green apple ice and ate it. He offered a piece to Lois, who made a face and reached over him to taste the blue ice. "Blue raspberry," she murmured.

Clark felt her stare on the back of his neck and his nerves tingled. "It's not rocket science," he replied. "Here's what you do."

He popped another piece of the flavored ice in his mouth, choosing orange, and used his stick to stir the treats together. He poked and prodded the ice so that they melted under his ministrations. On one side, he mixed the orange and cherry flavors, and the other, blue raspberry and green apple. The flavors met in the middle in a colorful swirl of oranges, reds, blues and greens. As it melted into one mass, the liquid was dangerously close to spilling over.

Her nose scrunched together. "Why would anyone waste their time doing that?" she asked, taking the stick out of her mouth.

Clark dipped four of his fingers into the now mostly melted mess of ice. Lois watched, fascinated, as he brought them up, the liquid trailing down. He turned around.

"So you could do –" He flicked his fingers in her face. "– this."

Lois gaped, shocked that he actually did what she thought he did. The droplets of syrupy ice started to trail down her cheeks and forehead. Never mind that it actually felt cool against her heated skin.

"Clark!" she squawked.

He licked the stickiness off his fingers casually. "Mmm…" He shifted the plate on his lap. "Yes, Lois?"

"Y-you –" she sputtered, unfolding her legs beneath her so they lay steady on the floor.

Clark stood up slowly with the plate in his right hand and cupped his ear with his left. "Speak up, I can't hear you," he said, facing her.

Lois lunged for him and Clark evaded her, laughing.

"Smallville!" she shouted. She rubbed a hand on her forehead and grimaced at the stickiness. "I'm going to _get_ you!"

"'Get' me? What, you can't be more creative than that?" He dipped his fingers a second time.

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't do it, Clark."

"What?" he asked, eyes wide and innocent. "This?" He flicked his fingers again, this time at her chest, and sprinkled her light blue tank top.

Lois reacted quicker, surprising him, but he managed to lift the plate above his head, out of her reach as she collided with him. He steadied her easily and she struggled against his ironclad grip. She gave up after several seconds, and he expected her to start complaining.

"Damn, Smallville. I knew you ate your spinach, but seriously," she commented. Lois used her free hand to squeeze his bicep. Clark tensed as her squeeze became a caress.

"What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously.

Lois looked up from under her eyelashes. "Nothing," she said sweetly. She stroked his bicep one more time before her hand started to trail down his side.

Clark shivered. "Lois…"

Her fingers curled around his hip, digging in softly. He hissed. Lois dropped her head so her cheek lay against his chest. Her hold loosened on his hip and moved to rub circles on his lower back. Clark exhaled quietly and his grip around her slackened as he focused on her touch. This allowed her other hand to join in on rubbing his back.

Without realizing it, he started to lower the Popsicle soup plate. He used his free hand to move a strand of hair out of her face. Lois met his eyes.

Whatever she saw made her gaze falter from his. However, there was no hesitation when she looked back a second later. She tilted her head up. What she wanted was unmistakable. Her right hand danced across the nape of his neck, urging him closer.

Clark leaned down. All he wanted was to taste her lips. Their mouths were a breath away from touching when he felt a cold, wet and sticky palm against his cheek.

Lois placed her lips over his, but didn't apply any pressure. "Gotcha," she murmured through their frozen kiss.

Next thing Clark knew, Lois sunk both her hands in the shallow plate, cupped some of the melted ice, and threw it at him, splattering his neck and white muscle shirt. She grinned widely at his dumbfounded face.

"Nyah, nyah!" She stuck out her tongue, though she moved a safe distance away.

Clark's wide eyes and open mouth gradually smoothed over into a narrowed gaze. He took a step toward her as he placed his whole hand on the plate instead of just his fingers. Lois took a step back, knees bending as if ready to bolt, watching him for any sudden movements. He lifted his hand, the melted ice sliding down his skin forebodingly.

Lois tensed, meeting calm blue eyes with her wary hazel ones. "I'm faster than you," she said.

Clark smirked. "You think so?"

"I _know_ so," she retorted, lifting her two sticky hands in front of her like some kind of defense.

Clark's smirk grew as if he knew something she didn't and her muscles stiffened further. He stepped forward again and she took another step back. However, she forgot her surroundings and stepped back into the porch railing. She stumbled slightly and Clark used the opportunity to lunge.

Lois yelped and barely dodged to the side to avoid him. Clark reached out and grazed her arm in red and orange flavored liquid slush. She made a face at the sensation, though it actually cooled her skin.

"Eck." She could already feel the slushy ice start to dry and stick.

"What was that about being fast?" Clark asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You didn't catch me, did you?" she shot back.

His eyes sparkled and Lois suddenly had a very bad feeling. "Smallville…" she trailed off, a note of warning in her tone.

Lois's eyes flickered from him to the porch stairs behind him. Blocked. She could chance turning her back on him and making a run for the other side of the porch where the front door was. She could seek sanctuary in his room. However, she didn't like giving him an opening.

"Nowhere to run, Lo," he sang, dipping his fingers again. He knew she didn't want to lose sight of him.

_Screw it,_ she thought. She would have to chance it.

Lois shifted her weight, watched as Clark remained absolutely still. Then, like a shot, she whirled around and ran. She made it around the corner of the porch before Clark tackled her. He didn't take her down, though. He grabbed her about the waist and swung her around – _with one hand,_ she noticed, amazed – pinning her against the wall of the house. His right hand still held onto the plate where the Popsicles once lay.

_Silly Smallville,_ she thought dazedly._ He never makes any sense._ Her thoughts wouldn't settle. She could only feel him pressed against her, his knee between her thighs. He had her immobilized against the wall and she felt the power in the air shifting.

Clark's head tilted and Lois's breath caught as she felt him nuzzle the space between her neck and shoulder. Cold hit her next as liquid covered fingers twirled along her collarbone.

"Clark," she breathed. She turned so her nose was buried in his thick mane of hair. She breathed in his scent the same moment she felt melted Popsicle slide under her tank top. She shrieked and jumped into his arms.

Clark caught her effortlessly and lifted her so she was perched on his waist, legs coming to wrap around his hips. One hand held her up, pulling her top slightly open from the back, allowing the other hand to hold the dripping plate over the gap. Lois squirmed in his embrace as she reached behind and smacked his hand away. The slushy ice felt simultaneously chilly and sticky as it slipped down her back.

"You are such a –" Lois finally looked into the eyes of her captor and gulped at the intensity in his eyes.

"Such a…?" The right corner of his lips quirked up lazily.

"… brat." Lois poked his forehead. Then she proceeded to smear her hands over his shirt and skin, anywhere she could reach, spreading the syrupy mix wherever she could. It was a stupid move, she would reflect later, considering she couldn't escape. The only thought in her mind at that moment was payback.

The plate clanked as it was deposited on another side table before Clark retaliated with both hands, mirroring her. She shrieked with laughter this time as he ran his fingers along the back of her neck and under her arms. He tickled her mercilessly, leaving only flavored ice in his wake. She tried to wiggle away from him but his grip was like steel. Farm work did wonders.

Realizing she couldn't break free, Lois became determined to mark as much of him as she could even as she fought through her giggles. She ran her fingers through his hair, making his black locks stand up at the same time he tagged the curve of her hips. She reciprocated by smudging his cheeks. He grabbed her thighs, backing away from the wall so she would have to rely solely on him for support. Her breath hitched and she squeezed his shoulders. Clark stopped, as if just becoming aware of the tension.

They both stared at each other. Clark's hair was stuck up in random patches and Lois's ponytail was askew, their skin and clothes covered in splotches and streaks and dots of sticky melted ice. His muscle shirt was no longer pristine white and her tank top was wrinkled and bunched up in places from when she was trying to wriggle away. They became conscious of how ridiculously silly, reckless and fun the past several minutes had been – how it let them temporarily forget the stifling heat.

Clark and Lois immediately busted out laughing, holding onto each other.

Lois was breathless by the time she gathered her wits about her, skin tingling from the melted ice. She looked down at her gorgeous boyfriend, loving the light so recently come back into his blue-green gaze. "Well, this is one way of cooling down," she said, grinning.

Something fiery flashed through Clark's eyes then. "Actually…" He held her securely in his arms and flattened her against the wall again, their lips skimming each other's with teasing brushes. "I think it's a more appropriate way of heating up."

Lois kissed him long and deep before she licked a trail from his cheek to his ear, tasting cherry-orange and Clark. She felt him stiffen beneath her and she chuckled breathily. "I stand corrected."


End file.
